I Am a Guide
by Silvergamgee
Summary: A handful of dirt-poor adventurers find their way under the wing of a much stronger guide. Their newfound path will take them from the depths of a sacred centaur circle to the pits of the Abyss itself. Immortality lies beyond.
1. Chapter 1

I do not claim or imply ownership of the Dungeons and Dragons system and this writing is, of course, a work of fiction. My player characters are, so far as I know, not reading this and do not know what surprises are in store. Happy reading.

I am a guide, and I am a hunter. Those who disturb that which is sacred to me rarely avoid the teeth on my blade or the point of my arrow. Never had I left my sacred glen, but I learned a bit of the outside world by listening in on those who chose to pass through the woods. They never saw me, and most never bothered. The northern part of my woods is forbidden to all but me. Those who walk there without my or the centaurs leave are quickly escorted to the border. Those who refuse will never make such a foolish mistake again…ever.

But as all things must happen, something changed and I had to leave my woods. It happened when some black figures stole into the trees, smelling of smoke, sweat, and blood. I knew this group as they often passed through my wood; they even made a cottage out of nothing but deadfall in a small meadow. However, this time it was different, they stank of blood and ruin. Before I had an opportunity to question their actions, I saw that they were not alone. Wounded, weary, and not just a little angry were those that followed, hot on the dark one's trail.

It is with these folk that I was forced to leave my woods. Not against my will, but I finally found something worth traveling for. My grove would soon be destroyed if I did nothing. Yet what can one Elf do? I found that a few stout, if somewhat uncouth, allies can turn the tide of any battle. And these strangers who fearlessly chased these dark men into the woods would be mine eventually. But as to how they got here; let me tell you the tale.

Murcui, Yenessa, Wedgo, and Luuego were but four very poor people who set out to find fortune in other lands. Yenessa and Luuego were both elves, and although they did not know each other well, they found companions in each other. Yenessa was a thief, among other things, and nimble and graceful as they came. Luuego was a different story. Her back was stooped from years of pouring over old tomes and scrolls. Though she was still very young by elf standards, her mind encompassed the wisdom of a venerable elder. Murcui learned how to fight from years of taunting as a child and then a very difficult few seasons at the academy. His somewhat thoughtless manner of speech got him into more fights than anything else and he thought it better to leave and find fortune as he may. This is how he met the elves. Wedgo was the odd one of the group. Fortune was not his goal. He carried little with him and said even less. This human, though small, was amazingly formidable in combat, weapon or no. He traveled to sharpen his wits and his mind. He joined with the group because being alone on any road is dangerous.

These people, with hardly a coin to call their own, were utterly spent on their supplies when they reached a small town called Mesa. Around it a palisade had been hastily erected. A lone guard stood by the open gate, spear in hand. Behind the town, a immense mesa, several hundred feet high, thrust out of the plains.

"Heh, wonder where the town got its name?" Said Murcui.

"Hush, do not be so unwise as to insinuate insult in front of the gates when we have no where else to go." Advised Wedgo.

"Insinu-huh?"

The wizard snapped. "Be quiet for a moment, and we'll see what we can dig up here."

As they approached, they saw that the wood was still oozing sap in some places. The wood was poorly hewn and unfortified. "Anyone get the feeling that there's been trouble here?" The rogue asked as they passed through the gate.

"Halt! Sorry, I just need your names before you come in here. Being foreigners and all. I can see you have elves with you. We're a multiracial town, so don't worry about it. The dwarves run the mines and we handle the trade. My name is Rex, by the way, I watch the gate. It's a boring job, not much to do. But come on in! We love to have some new folks around to keep things interesting. By the way, if you're looking for work you can talk to Durek, he's always looking for a few extra hands to work." The guard ushered them in.

"Uh, don't you want our names?" Asked the wizard, overcome with the friendly greeting.

"Oh, uh…yeah."

They left their names with the guard and passed into the walls of the town. It was in a word, sparse. Two small chapels stood back by the mesa wall, a few work huts near the gaping mineshaft. What looked like a store was nestled against another building that might have either been a small common hall, or a large house…maybe both. Along the other side were a few hovels with a tiny tavern amidst them. All was in a moderate state of disrepair.

"This town has had it pretty rough…I wonder what's going on." Marveled Mercui.

"We don't have money to rent a room; we better see what this Durek fellow has for work. I'd rather not sleep on the ground and eat squirrels for the third day in a row." Grumbled the rogue. With that, the party wandered to the mineshaft. They saw that there were more homes hewn directly into the wall. An old dwarf sat by the entrance. His grey eyes glimmered with intelligence and a strange sadness. As they approached, they noted that the dwarf was one leg short, the left one as it were.

"Aye, me laddies and lassies. I see that you have come to my little place of the world. What can I do for yeh? Durek's the name, by the way. I run the mines, I used to work in the tunnels too, but I had me a bit of misfortune. It always comes in threes, misfortune does. First me leg is lost in an accident, now me mines are at half capacity. I dread to think what else may be coming."

"We've come looking for work. Why is your mine down so much capacity?" Said the rogue. A troubled look came over the dwarf's face.

"We've got vermin down there. We broke into a chamber rich in mithril ores. But only a day after we started mining, the mine was overrun with rats and snakes and strange beetles that bite something fierce. One of me miners was killed before he could escape. The rest refuse to go down to the second layer of the mine. There's ores on the first level too but the going has been rough, especially with the trouble up north."

The adventurers had come from the north, but they had heard of no trouble. They were about to speak up when the dwarf cut them off. "Tell ye what, I see you have arms for fighting. You clear out the mines for me, and I'll arrange for a room at the tavern once you get started. Also, feel free to keep whatever you find laying around down there. The tunnel is rigged with lights all the way down, so you shouldn't have trouble seein'. But be careful, I don't want to have to go on a rescue mission. I can't hop as fast as I used to." The dwarf gave a friendly wink and went back to reading some scroll he'd be poring over before.

"Well," sighed Yanessa, "there's little we can do on travel worn legs and empty stomachs. Let's find a place to rest up and prepare for the road ahead." The process turned out to be pretty simple. None of the small houses about town were capable of holding a party of their size, and there was only one tavern in the town that they could not afford. They simply went to Rex's hut and asked to spend the night inside the city walls. Rex complied and let them use his fire to cook the last of their food.


	2. The Mines, and a New Problem

Once again, I don't own DD...so, yeah, why does everyone write this anyway?

Dawn broke gently over the top of the mesa, sweeping away the shadow of night over the dry plains that surround the hamlet. One by one, the party arose. The first din of the morning was a low grumble from the figher Murcui over the lack of food. The thought of going into the mine on an empty stomach was not big on anyone's list, but it had to be done. One by one, each member stretched and prepared themselves for the task at hand. After about an hour, the wizard closed her spell book and declared herself ready. The rest were waiting.

They marched to the mine, wondering what manner of creatures they might face. Vermin was the only description that was given. As they arrived at the mine, they saw that Durek was not there, but they pressed forward. A small lever hooked to some mechanism stood at the entrance. Yanessa pulled the lever and a series of lanterns lit the cave. A few side tunnels pushed back into the mesa, but the party followed the mine cart in front of them. After advancing several hundred feet into the cave, a dwarven mine elevator came into view.

Redgin, one of the dwarves that worked the mines, came along to help them work the elevator. After piling onto the confined space, a series of gears and chains began to turn and crank and the elevator dropped into the depths of the mine. Darkness swallowed the adventurers up as they waited. After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator lurched and stopped in a total blackness. Murcui took an experimental poke off the side of the elevator and found that they were indeed on solid ground. He called the rest to step off. After a few moments of fumbling, they got a torch lit.

What stood out was not the torch. It was the illumination down the mine tunnel. Murcui motioned for silence and the scuttling of legs followed. After a few moments, they saw that it was heading towards them and weapons were readied. The creature was a beetle the size of a large dog. It had a glowing stalk above each eye, providing illumination and probably bait for its prey.

With a sharp cry, Wedgo dove in to join beetle, flying in with a powerful kick. The insect ducked low and the foot connected on the hard carapace and bounced harmlessly up in the air. Wedgo lost his balance and tumbled to the ground behind the monster. Murcui immediately stepped forward to aid his friend before the beetle could turn. He stepped in, hacking relentlessly at the creatures eyes, but the exoskeleton was hardy and his first blows did not cut.

The beetle lunged forward with surprising speed and latched onto Murcui's knee, biting down hard. The leather on his leg prevented the mandibles from slicing open his leg, but the crushing pain was enormous. Murcui dropped his sword and pulled out a dagger, hoping to slash out the monster's eyes. The monster pushed the fighter backwards, keeping him off balance. Both the wizard and the rogue held their ranged weapons on the beetle, looking for an opening. The rogue spotted one first and loosed the arrow. It flew past the fighters knee and downwards into the shell.

The monster loosed Murcui and turned to flee, only finding that the monk had regained his feet. This time, the beetle was not so lucky. A powerful, sweeping kick hit it across the mandibles and broke one open. Only a moment later, the fighter worked his dagger through the carapace, finding soft flesh beneath. The wizard had the final say, a crossbow bolt dug to its fletching in the creature and the legs stopped squirming.

"A fine bit of teamwork." Murcui then looked down at the antennae, seeing that they had not lost their illumination. "Put out the torch, no need in wasting our resources." With that, he sliced the antennae off and handed them over to the rogue and monk. After testing his knee and finding it in reasonable working order, he nodded to the monk, who crept silently down the hallway, looking for the next challenge..

They had blasted through several more of the glowing beetles and a few large rats, even a large snake that attempted to coil itself around Yanessa when she crept ahead. Their pockets were stuffed with mithril ores that the miners had dropped in their desperate retreat. Murcui was battered but OK after all the fighting he had done. His knee was bruised and swollen; he had several lacerations along his arms and legs, but nothing serious. Wedgo might have sprained his ankle and he had a cut above his hairline somewhere. Yanessa had a series of welts up her arm and upper torso from the coils of the snake. The wizard so far had avoided injury, but she had loosed several killing spells to help her friends, most notably blasting the snake off of Yanessa's arm without injuring her friend. They had been down there for hours, but they stayed. Only one more mining chamber remained between them and victory for the day.

They stepped forward. All the adventurers had eyestalks of the beetles hanging from their belts, brightly illuminating the chamber…and they recoiled in horror. A small tunnel far in the back of the room had allowed some strange beast in there. It appeared to be half rat, half of something else they couldn't even identify. Unbeknownst to the adventurers, the sun had set and the first night of the full moon had begun above.

The creature held a cruel club that appeared to be the remains of a mining pick. It was rusted and torn from the powerful teeth and saliva from the creature before them. The rogue quickly drew and loosed an arrow, but the rat was too quick, leaping to the side and into the wall. It used the wall to propel itself forward in a charge. Murcui took a swat at the creature as it passed him in midair. He missed the body and got the tail, doing nothing to slow the creature down. Wedgo chose not to dodge but rather tried to snatch the thing out of midair and slam it into the ground. He did so perfectly, but for the rat sinking its rotting teeth into his arm. Wedgo jumped up and gave a swift departing kick. Murcui had spun around and prepared to stick the creature that had gotten past him.

Yanessa had one arrow fitted and fired at point blank range. She struck the thing, but her arrow could not penetrate the tough skin. In dismay, she dropped her short bow and pulled out the pair of daggers she always kept close at hand. Murcui found that his strike at the tail had also failed to do damage. The party spread into a loose circle around the rat, which seemed unsure of its next course of action. It was solved for the rat. The wizard uttered a few words and made a gesture, and a gout of flame erupted from her hands, scorching the rat which could not get out of the way. It skittered to the side, howling from the pain of the fire, and finally hurt. In its panic, it did not notice where it was going, nor did it notice the rogue before the dagger slipped neatly under its chin. The rat struck at Yanessa feebly with the club once before it slumped to the ground, barely even causing an impact.

All eyes in the room turned to Wedgo, who had also fallen to the floor. His eyes rolled in his head and his mouth foamed. Murcui wisely rolled a large stone over the hole and watched in horror as his friend turned into a similar rat-like creature. Wedgo hesitated as the last bit of clarity left his eyes. The wizard immediately chanted again, and Wedgo's eyes closed and he swooned on his feet/claws. Murcui turned the flat of his blade and smote his friend across the head, knocking him out but not severely hurting him. Luuego turned to protest, but knew that it was probably the better course of action, they would have to figure out what to do tomorrow. With that, they turned around and went back up the way they came, hoping to find a solution to the problem that now faced their friend.


End file.
